A bit of encouragement!

[Justinquill]

Hey theory 11 forum friends,

So I wanted to let you all in on a couple things that I have done that I hope I can share and perhaps encourage any one who might be struggling in certain aspects of their technical skill with close up magic. When it comes to the performance part of doing a magic show or routine, I've never really had trouble. I have a degree in theater and I have been apart of multiple improv groups and performances. The part of magic that I struggle with is of course the technical aspect of close up magic. The double lifts, the different passes, the fake shuffles and cuts, the different kind of breaks, all the palms under the sun..you get the idea. My first inclination was to dive in and try to learn all of them at the same time, but it wasn't working. I would figure out the basics of them and try to perform a trick using that technique and more often then not it was sloppy. So, what I decided was I would build a routine that used only a handful of techniques to start with and really give those time and effort till I really nailed them. The ones my current routine calls for is, double lift, slop shuffle, false cut, false shuffle, a card force, a false transfer of a coin to my dominate hand and multiple controls to the top and bottom of the decks. So for the last two weeks I've devoted a lot of time to each of these while I go about my day. I work from home so while I'm at my desk I'm constantly doing double lifts, or really trying to understand how my hand closes around a coin being put into it. Appointments with doctors or clients I will bring a deck while I'm sitting in the waiting room and just do double lifts over and over and over again. *Got some good reactions from a couple of teenagers that saw it*
The point I'm making is, I was very sloppy with almost all of these just two weeks ago, but I put in the time and really focus on just a few things and even in this short span of time, I'm starting to notice a difference. My performances are much cleaner and the two people I run all my tricks by even have mentioned the difference. Even if you have smaller hands or you keep flashing cards, don't give up, Magic is a craft like any other, to be a master, it takes skill, skill requires practice, and practice time and patience. You can do it, and if you ever get discouraged feel free to read this or message me on here, I'm still learning myself, I am happy to share what I can.

TL;DR - Good at performance bad at techniques. Put in a lot of time and patience, getting better every day. You can too!

 

[RealityOne]

When you are beginning magic, it takes a while to get proficient in handling the cards in general.

My advice is to make sure you are practicing the techniques properly. A lot of the "teachers" on YouTube have very bad technique. Simple things like how to properly hold the deck affect your ability to do any move. That is part of the reason I recommend Card College Volumes 1 & 2 -- they properly teach you the fundamentals that you need to perform the more advanced sleights. Whenever I learn a new sleight from a book or DVD, I'll go whichever volume of Card College it is taught in and compare the handling. I typically use Card College to learn the sleight. After I think I have the sleight down, I go back to the description and do a double check. It is amazing how everything makes more sense when you re-reading after you have been practicing. I often pick up nuances in handling that I missed the first time. That is true for any book or DVD.

 

[Justinquill]

Card College, I'll check it out for sure!

 

[Al e Cat Dabra]

Justiquill, that must be quite gratifying to see that improvement, and to get that positive feedback from friends who have watched your progress. Yes, there really is no substitute for hard work, devotion, consistency, and perseverance. Sounds like a bunch of cliches, but I have found it to be true. It totally pays off and feels great to be rewarded with tangible improvement, doesn't it?.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Hey Justin, I think that the way you built your routine was exactly the right way to do stuff.

When I first started doing magic, I had no idea what I was doing tbh. I thought I was good to perform, but I was some utter trash lol.
then, I heard someone quoting a magician who said something along the lines of "If you can do a double lift, a palm, a card control, and a force - you can work miracles." It was then that I realized that the basics are where all the good stuff is. Now I realize that all the knuckle busting palms that Marlo has created, all the amazing tricks on the modern market, EVERYTHING revolves around a very basic move. This move gets developed and developed and developed and creates something spectacular.

I then thought "ok burn all the crap you've been trying to create for the last few months and focus on the basics". I started to focus on them and from these simple super basic ideas and tricks, you can create amazing stuff. However, you will probably fall into a trap that we all did where you will have more basic moves in your actual basic tricks than needed. Here is something that might help. I generally do this while revising a trick, and there really isn't a real method to my revision process., but doing it will actually help you build your tricks further.

Go back to your routines. See if you can strip away anything and everything, leaving you with just the moves you actually. "Do I really need to shuffle the cards if the card is already lost and I'm just moving along? Not always. So I won't put a false shuffle where there doesn't need to be one", "Do I really need to give it a false cut after the pass? Nope", etc.Then see if anything will make the effect look better. Change the order, or the location, or the timing, see if anything works. "The card isn't in the deck anymore, why not put the deck in the spectator's hands and make it look like it has vanished?" Now at this point, you may want to work in your more advanced moves. "Maybe if I use this Action Palm over a standard cop, it will look cleaner, and make it more natural". Then go back and add the filler, and the patter, and everything and you will see how much your trick has changed.

If you do plan to do this and want more direct help with a specific trick or routine, PM me! I'll be happy to help. I think early revision is actually one of the most crucial part to an effect.

 

[Justinquill]

Hey Justin, I think that the way you built your routine was exactly the right way to do stuff.

When I first started doing magic, I had no idea what I was doing tbh. I thought I was good to perform, but I was some utter trash lol.
then, I heard someone quoting a magician who said something along the lines of "If you can do a double lift, a palm, a card control, and a force - you can work miracles." It was then that I realized that the basics are where all the good stuff is. Now I realize that all the knuckle busting palms that Marlo has created, all the amazing tricks on the modern market, EVERYTHING revolves around a very basic move. This move gets developed and developed and developed and creates something spectacular.

I then thought "ok burn all the crap you've been trying to create for the last few months and focus on the basics". I started to focus on them and from these simple super basic ideas and tricks, you can create amazing stuff. However, you will probably fall into a trap that we all did where you will have more basic moves in your actual basic tricks than needed. Here is something that might help. I generally do this while revising a trick, and there really isn't a real method to my revision process., but doing it will actually help you build your tricks further.

Go back to your routines. See if you can strip away anything and everything, leaving you with just the moves you actually. "Do I really need to shuffle the cards if the card is already lost and I'm just moving along? Not always. So I won't put a false shuffle where there doesn't need to be one", "Do I really need to give it a false cut after the pass? Nope", etc.Then see if anything will make the effect look better. Change the order, or the location, or the timing, see if anything works. "The card isn't in the deck anymore, why not put the deck in the spectator's hands and make it look like it has vanished?" Now at this point, you may want to work in your more advanced moves. "Maybe if I use this Action Palm over a standard cop, it will look cleaner, and make it more natural". Then go back and add the filler, and the patter, and everything and you will see how much your trick has changed.

If you do plan to do this and want more direct help with a specific trick or routine, PM me! I'll be happy to help. I think early revision is actually one of the most crucial part to an effect.

I'll def. take you up on this! Thanks